Answered Questions is a monthly resource for the Spanish language Disability Community that fills an information need. This month’s question is: What is diabetes and what research, information, and resources are available for people with diabetes? This edition of Answered Questions includes items that define diabetes; discuss the reduction of cardio-metabolic diseases for people with spinal cord injury (SCI); traveling and diabetes; how technology can help manage diabetes; physical activity and diabetes; what teachers need to know; barriers to employment; parents supporting successful and secure participation in school; how stress affects people with diabetes; and share an interactive video on diabetes.
What is diabetes?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), diabetes is a chronic disease “that affects how your body turns food into energy.” Type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and gestational diabetes are the three main types of diabetes and over 100 million Americans are living with diabetes or prediabetes. Complications from diabetes include nerve pain, stroke, heart disease, amputation, and blindness.
NIDILRR-Funded Projects:
The goal of The Disability, Rehabilitation, Engineering Access for Minorities (DREAM) project (in English) (90IFST0001) is to help reduce the risk of cardio-metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, in people with SCI by providing them with greater access to exercise.
From the NARIC Collection:
The article Traveling with diabetes (in English) (J72007) offers helpful travel tips for people with diabetes. It includes advice for planning the trip, packing wisely, preparation, and more.
Technology:
The NIDILRR-funded project AbleData (in English) has published a guide on assistive technology (AT) to help people with diabetes (PDF – in English). This guide provides information on AT for daily health management, products for diabetic complications, mobile apps for diabetes management, and next steps.
Rehabilitation:
The article Diabetes and Physical Activity (Spanish Association of Physiotherapists) discusses how exercise is one of the key interventions to control and lose weight and to reduce the risk of diabetes type 2. It also discusses how physical therapists can also assist people with complications due to diabetes.
Education:
What do teachers need to know about diabetes? is an article from the Center for the Innovation in Childhood Diabetes (CIDI, its acronym in Spanish) that discusses diabetes type 1, when to administer insulin, how to control blood sugar, nutrition in school, exercise during school hours, and other topics that teachers should know if they have a student with diabetes.
Employment:
Diabetes must not constitute a general reason of exclusion in access to public employment is an article from Madrid’s Office of the Public Defender discusses a report about the concern regarding the barriers met by people with diabetes as they look for employment.
Daily Life:
The American Diabetes Association has published an article on how stress affects people with diabetes. The article also includes information on how to reduce stress in general and ways to deal with the stress related to having diabetes.
Resources:
- Diabetes in School from KidsHealth is an article for parents of children with diabetes type 1 that discusses what parents need to do so that their child can participate successfully and securely in school and related activities.
- The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) (in English) provides information on how to prevent secondary conditions due to diabetes, what your medical professional should be discussing at each visit, what you should be doing daily to help control your diabetes, and additional links to information on staying healthy.
- The American Diabetes Association has produced an interactive video that explains what diabetes is, along with information on secondary conditions and medications.
Further Research:
REHABDATA:
PubMed:
International:
Each month, we look through the searches on our blog and through the information requests made by our patrons who speak Spanish and pick a topic that fills the largest need. Each resource mentioned above is associated with this month’s information need. We search the various Spanish language news sources and feeds throughout the month to bring you these articles. With the exception of the NIDILRR Projects and Further Investigation, all the linked articles and resources are in Spanish – any that are in English will be clearly marked.
Collection Spotlight from the National Rehabilitation Information Center 